Can Zelensky, Riding High, Negotiate an End to the War in Eastern Ukraine?

Can Zelensky, Riding High, Negotiate an End to the War in Eastern Ukraine?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy talks with servicemen as he visits the war-hit Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine, May 27, 2019 (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office photo via AP Images).

Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is on a roll. In April, he trounced incumbent Petro Poroshenko at the polls. Last month, Zelensky’s Servant of the People party won a majority mandate in a snap parliamentary election, so it can press ahead with much-needed reforms. But a bigger challenge looms: finding a path to negotiate an end to the war in eastern Ukraine.

Zelensky’s winning streak could be tested when he meets with U.S. President Donald Trump in September. He is seeking more leverage over Russia in an attempt to resolve the conflict that has raged in eastern Ukraine since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. But to do so, Zelensky will need to square a circle over the question of Ukraine’s potential NATO membership bid.

In February, Ukraine’s parliament voted overwhelmingly in support of a constitutional amendment committing the country to membership in both NATO and the European Union, a bill Poroshenko put forward late last year in the run up to the presidential elections. While the move to enshrine Ukraine’s eventual entry into NATO into law didn’t translate into the presidential win Poroshenko was likely looking for, it was the most serious step yet on Kiev’s long and bumpy road to asserting its independence from Moscow.

Keep reading for free!

Get instant access to the rest of this article by submitting your email address below. You'll also get access to three articles of your choice each month and our free newsletter:

Or, Subscribe now to get full access.

Already a subscriber? Log in here .

What you’ll get with an All-Access subscription to World Politics Review:

A WPR subscription is like no other resource — it’s like having a personal curator and expert analyst of global affairs news. Subscribe now, and you’ll get:

  • Immediate and instant access to WPR’s fully searchable library of 16,000+ articles
  • Daily articles with original analysis, written by leading topic experts, delivered to you every weekday
  • Weekly in-depth reports on important issues and countries
  • Daily links to must-read news and analysis from top sources around the globe, curated by our keen-eyed team of editors
  • The Weekly Wrap-Up email, with highlights of the week’s most important coverage, and what’s to come.
  • Completely ad-free reading.

And all of this is available to you when you subscribe today.

More World Politics Review